The use of a roller grill to cook hot dogs dates back at least as early as 1939. At that time, Dumas, in U.S. Pat. No. 2,185,979, recognized the advantage of using a plurality of rollers to quickly and uniformly cook hot dogs or other similarly shaped foods. Since that time, the roller grill has been associated with America's food icon, the hot dog.
There have been numerous improvements to this device over the years where it has become a part of most commercial food service establishments, which serve large quantities of hot dogs or similarly shaped foods. Manufactures of such units spend a great of time and effort to instruct the purchasers and the equipment operators concerning safety and proper cleaning procedures. The roller grill has a plurality of cooking tubes that rotate by a drive mechanism with each roller tube anchored between opposing sides of the side panels. Each roller tube is fitted with a bearing so that it may turn freely. The present construction of this bearing mechanism is a plastic bearing that is snapped into an opening provided in a sheet metal panel. Cleaning instructions inform the operator to carefully clean each tube so that grease and particles do not get into the bearing that will substantially reduce the bearing's lifespan. Cleaning and the grease seals help prevent grease and debris from entering into the bearings and the drive mechanism which is the major source of early drive failure.
Further, operators are cautioned against using one or more roller tubes as “handles” for moving the grill or placing unusually heavy objects on the grill for storage when the grill is not in use. Present roller grill bearing surfaces are made from relatively soft plastic such as TEFLON polymer that can be easily cut by the sharp edges of the sheet metal opening if the bearing is forced out of alignment due to excessive force or accumulation of grease or dirt. TEFLON is the registered trademark of E.I. Du Pont, Wilmington, Del. for its polytetrafluoroethylene polymer.
There is not found in the prior art a roller grill bearing apparatus that substantially increases the surface area of the bearing, ensures that the bearing will not rotate when snapped in place; can concentrate the friction surface to a known location for better control of wearing, and, yet, can be easily manufactured and installed in a manner similar to present manufacturing techniques.